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A nation of immigrants All Americans have roots overseas BY MIKE PATRICK REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

You are an immigrant, or the descendant of one. Whether you came here from Albania last year, or your great-grandparents arrived in the 19th century on a steamship from Europe or a slave ship from Africa, you are descended from immigrants. If your ancestors sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 or walked the 1,000-mile Beringia land bridge during the last ice age, you're planted on Connecticut soil now, but your roots are oceans away.

And what you or your ancestors sought, no doubt, was the ideal our nation celebrates today, on this Independence Day.

While enjoying the gift of freedom, immigrants to Connecticut have brought gifts of their own — their culture, their labor, their talents and their intellect — that helped grow the state and, indeed, keep it growing today.

"Most of our state is comprised of these different immigrant groups that have come over the centuries," said Ruth Glasser, urban and community studies professor at the Waterbury branch of the University of Connecticut. "Every group has brought interesting things with it; they brought different cultures, traditions, businesses, just different ways of looking at the world. Our state wouldn't be what it is without them."

For instance, she said, many of the mass-production machines used in Waterbury's brass industry were invented by immigrants from England, who brought to the state technology developed during the Industrial Revolution.

Those brass factories were populated by a multicultural army of skilled and unskilled laborers from many different nations.

"We couldn't have grown our industry without all the immigrants coming in to provide the labor and the ingenuity and ideas," she said.

As they settled in enclaves where they felt safest and most comfortable, Glasser said, immigrants were also responsible for changing and growing the character of individual communities in the state.

In fact, a state panel called the Connecticut Interracial Commission in 1940 released a color-coded map indicating where people of different nationalities had settled in the state. The map is a cultural rainbow. Waterbury is shaded red, meaning, at that time, that the city was heavily Italian. Thomaston and Plymouth are navy blue, meaning a high density of Polish people. Bethlehem and Woodbury are kelly green, signifying the presence of Lithuanians.

Today's immigrants continue to settle with their own, said Mark Grasso, vice president of Catholic Charities in Bridgeport, which provides services for immigrants with the desire and means to stay in the country legally.

"Half of the people we serve in our immigration program actually come to us from a local church," he said. "They go there because they're looking for a place they can feel safe. They talk to a priest and the priest refers them to us."

The difference these days, he said, is that most of the immigrant population seems to be coming from South America and Central America, as opposed to the great European migration that swept the country 150 years ago.

Census figures support that claim.

An American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010 estimated that of the close to 40 million people living in the country who are foreign-born, more than half are from Latin America.

In Connecticut, the numbers of foreign-born people are higher than average, census figures indicate. More than 13 percent of the state's residents are immigrants; the nationwide average is just under 13 percent.

According to UConn's Connecticut State Data Center, which used 1990 census figures, of the more than 279,000 foreign-born people in the state, more than 136,000 came from Europe, and the highest number of Europeans came from Italy, at more than 33,000.

More than 61,000 came from North America, and the highest number in that region came from the Caribbean, at more than 31,000.

Fewer than 25,000 entered the state from South and Central America as of the 1990 census.

Other data from the UConn center suggest these immigrants are keeping the state strong.

According to a report the center issued in 2007, low birth rates among established state residents meant the state's population would shrink in the coming years if not for the steady influx of foreign-born immigrants.

The data center at that time predicted that without immigration, the state's population could eventually shrink enough to erode its workforce and even lose seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Connecticut already lost one seat to declining population, after the 2000 census.

UConn's Glasser said the immigrants fill a void left when other residents flee seeking better opportunities in other states.

"There's a kind of a brain drain from Connecticut as more mainstream groups seem to be leaving to the Sun Belt for better job opportunities or weather," she said, noting immigrants tend to stay in the state because that's where their families are. "Immigrants bring energy, ideas and businesses to us, and it seems if you legalize people, you give them a chance to do something good for the community. If you keep them underground, they really can't contribute as much."

Contact Mike Patrick at mpatrick@rep-am.com, on Twitter @RA_MikePatrick or Facebook at ra.mike.patrick.

" Two thoughts! 1. We now have rules to follow! And 2. Some Indian tribes might take issue with your premise. And of course there are some who think we decended from aliens. Based on some of the journalism I read these days I would then to agree with the alien theory. "

" the difference with many immigrants now is, that unlike my ancestors who came here to become American's and leave their old life behind....many immigrants come here today to take advantage of our free stuff and have no intention of assimilating into an American. They fly their flags over the American flag and pillage our system for the benefits that other Americans worked hard for. The argument that 'we are all immigrants' is a closed minded, simple argument that ignores the stark differences that prior immigrants came here for...to found a nation; not take from it. "

" Depends on your definition of "immigrant." Obviously, the author favors the political definition. That is ok, as long as he recognizes that the people of which he speaks followed the laws of the country they immigrated to. With the exception of the first settlers, his statement is true. Once the US was founded, laws were put into place. The issue today is that we have criminals posing as "immigrants." They violated numerous laws to come here; the end does not justify the means. IF you ascribe to that theory, we are no longer a nation of laws.

An immigrant is the first generation to come to a new country. Anyone born here is a citizen, by law. However, we see people that have no intention of becoming functioning members of our society. That is an issue that needs resolution. Criminals need not apply. "

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